1970.03.04 Koln Music Hall, Cologne, Germany, March 3 1970

1970-03-04 Konzerthaus

1. Behind The Wall Of Sleep
2. Jazz Improvisation (1)
3. War Pigs (2)

(1) Frecuentemente mal titulada como 'Rat Salad'.
(2) War Pigs (distinta letra de la versión editada oficialmente)

Notas originales que acompañan a la grabación.

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Good audience recording, which is among the earliest live recordings of Sabbath in circulation. This mysterious live fragment has been circulating as Koln 3/4/70, but I have my doubts about this. For one, I haven't been able to find any mention of such a gig in their early itineraries.

Both the venue name and date are often misinterpreted. Jan Hoel pointed out to me that 'Kouzenthans' is probably just a mispelling of "Konzerthaus", which is German for 'concert hall'. The date for this tape is often listed as April 3rd, 1970, but this is just a common date transposition error. Sabbath were playing in West Croydon, England on April 3rd.

The sound of this tape is somewhat boomy, but clear enough to appreciate. It's a spirited performance that might seem slightly more so due to the slightly fast tape speed on the MASTERS OF GERMANY source, which is currently the only known bootleg to contain these tracks.

"Behind The Wall Of Sleep" contains a jazz section at the tail end of the song, which also appears on several live recordings from this era. My theory is that this was originally part of the song, but was edited out of the album version. Sabbath continued to perform the full version (with the jazz section) until the end of 1970. When "BTWOS" was resurrected for later tours, they reverted to the album version.

While this can’t be stated with any certainty (until the true source and date have been confirmed), this tape may contain the earliest known live recording of "Walpurgis", which was later re-titled "War Pigs" with new lyrics. The rendition of "Walpurgis" on this tape is similar to the one on the John Peel 4/26/71 Sunday Show session, with Tony playing some quirky fills that weren't used on the final recorded version. And of course, Ozzy was singing the original lyrics.

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